I am VERY pleased by this ~ on my way out the door for several hours, but hopefully there will be much more detail by the time I get home ~ Sooz


News Alert
12:32 PM EST Wednesday, December 2, 2009

NIH authorizes use of first human embryonic stem cells under new policy

Obama administration approves the first human embryonic stem cells for experiments by federally funded scientists under a new policy designed to dramatically expand government support for one of the most promising but also most contentious fields of biomedical research.

He needs to make sure that none of the Antis will ever profit in any way, shape or form from any resulting benefits.

I meant to post this article the other day but got distracted ~ opening these lines is itself an ENORMOUS advancement ~ Sooz


13 new stem cell lines approved for research

Updated 2d 13h ago

"What we are announcing today is just the beginning," Francis Collins, National Institutes of Health director, said Wednesday. Approval was "open and shut," he said, because the lines met requirements of new Obama administration guidelines for informed consent of embryo donors.

An embryonic stem cell line is a colony of cells grown from one embryo, which is destroyed in the process. The cells can grow into every type of body tissue. Collins and others propose using the cells to study embryonic development, screen drugs and perhaps grow rejection-free replacement organs.

"It's very exciting," says George Daley of Children's Hospital Boston, whose lab submitted 11 of the 13 approved lines. The other two lines belong to Ali Brivanlou at Rockefeller University in New York. The NIH will allow researchers, whose 31 grants for using such cells had awaited the announcement, to now proceed with the 13 lines.

"Eventually, the new guidelines will open up several hundred lines," says Dartmouth bioethicist Ronald Green. "Researchers need to be patient."

In July, the NIH answered President Obama's call for new federal funding rules for human embryonic stem cell research, overturning Aug. 9, 2001, Bush administration rules that limited funding to 21 lines created before that date.

Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes embryonic cell research, called the announcement "a political event, but the science is all moving in the other direction," toward "induced" stem cells, which are grown from skin cells but with the tissue-growing potential of embryonic cells. But Collins said the embryonic stem cells possess unique potential and also will illuminate induced cell line research.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/20 ... cell_N.htm

And this is encouraging that we can expect more in the not-too-distant future ~ Sooz


Panel: 27 more stem cell lines should be approved

A federal advisory panel Friday suggested approval of 27 more human embryonic stem cell lines for research funding, with restrictions.

Earlier in the week National Institutes of Health chief Francis Collins approved 13 other stem cell lines for federal funding after they met ethics guidelines released by the Obama administration this year. Stem cells are grown from one embryo's cells,

The 27 cell lines recommended for approval Friday are from Harvard University's stem cell institute. Biomedical researchers hope to study the cells for clues to embryonic development, drug screening and someday, perhaps the development of rejection-free replacement organ tissues for patients.

Final approval of the 27 lines rests with Collins. The advisory committee recommended he only allow their funding for research involving development of pancreatic cells, their original proposed purpose on consent forms signed by embryo donors.

"The review of the Harvard lines raises an issue that's likely to come up again: how to determine whether submitted lines should be approved only for research specified in the consent forms, or for broader use," says Jeff Akst of The Scientist magazine, in a commentary on the news. One other Harvard line was turned down by the committee for approval because of a lapse in a Harvard oversight committee sign-off on the institute's research during the time it was collected.

Another 68 human embryonic stem cell lines await advisory committee consideration, with hundreds more in "draft" submission status to come.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/sciencefair/2 ... roved.html

Very exciting. All I can really say is, it's about time!

A true "anti" would refuse to accept any treatement developed in this manner.